We are seeing more and more advertisements about continuous education, which only reflect an obvious reality: we cannot stop learning, we cannot stop training. Bartlett said it a few years ago: “Young people who train today will work in jobs we don’t even know about yet”.
This is not only in the usual educational stage in each person, but it also happens to us in the working stage. What new jobs or variants of the current ones will my company have in the next ten years?
It is evident that these questions are not easy to answer, but it is increasingly common to find profiles that have chosen courses from one platform or another to create a specialised curriculum in a specific area.
In the world of artificial intelligence, with all its specialities (advanced analytics, artificial vision, natural language, big data…), it makes particular sense to learn from different sources and to choose courses from platforms (such as Coursera or Datacamp) or from specialists in the sector who can provide, in addition to the necessary techniques, experience in applying them to real problems.
Can tailor-made training be of interest?
In dialogues with employees, managers and executives of many companies, I hear phrases like these:
- “I already have many certificates, what I want is to learn, not to accumulate more certificates”.
- “My employees lack training in specific areas”.
- “I can’t find what I need”.
- “The courses or diplomas offered to me are too long”.
- “I don’t have time outside working hours”.
- “My partner and I need training along these lines, but we each have a different background.
- “I can’t sacrifice those days away from work”.
- “What’s the point of me going with my partner to this week of the course? She knows everything about it and I know nothing about it”.
- “Training budgets are tight, we can’t waste investment in training that is not necessary or redundant”.
If you identify with some of these statements, tailor-made training is probably the solution for you.
From “Taylorist” training to tailor-made training
Tailor-made training is designed as short, stand-alone modules and can cover a wide range of topics that together can provide value to the employees. For example, Introduction to Python and Strategic decisions in the supply chain.
Tailor-made training has to be designed to meet the specific needs; this is the only, but important, prior task for this type of training to make sense.
An advantage, given the versatility of this type of training, is that there are usually few students in each course, which makes it more cost-effective in terms of utilisation.
If the courses are short and cover a variety of topics, the rewards (knowledge or skills acquisition) will be quick for the employee and the company.
And if, in addition, the training includes activities or tasks directly related to what the worker has in hand (what Gardner calls work-based learning, 1983), success will be assured.
Miguel Ortega professor at ETSII UPM and Head of the Organization Engineering dept.
Since the beginning of his career, he has been involved in training and the application of operations research to the industry.
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Bartlett, A. (2007), Arithmetic Population and Energy: Sustainability 101, video available at: http://www.albartlett.org/presentations/arithmetic_population_energy.html.
Gardner, H. (1983). Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences. Nueva York: Basic Books.
